The Hunted
by Brielle Ariana
Summary: Emmett, Jasper, and Edward have been handpicked by Carlisle Cullen to rule over Vampire kind. As Vampiric royalty, they have many concerns but none so pressing as The Hunters, an elite and gifted task-force created to ensure Vampires follow the laws. The boys may be tempted to think they are above the law. They'd be wrong. Rated M for later chapters. BellaxEdward endgame.
1. Stubborn Little Thing

"_Your client understands the weight of this decision?" _

"_Yes." _

"_She understands the consequences." _

"_Yes." _

"_She-_

"_She won't change her mind Carlisle." _

"_Yes, it's been established she's a stubborn little thing. Fine. So be it."_


	2. Chapter 1

_a/n All the names and stuff belongs to Stephanie Meyers. If your recognize it from the Twilight Sage, it's her. The rest is me. Just a warning, this will be in four POVs. I don't plan to rewrite things that have already happened in the other POVS in subsequent ones. They are just going to shift as things go on. Each POV shift will be precluded with a very small intro chapter that has nothing to do with the following POV. They'll make sense in the end. Maybe. _

_Jasper POV_

"What are you working on?"

I held in my sigh. I had heard variations of this greeting all day and was quickly growing exasperated by it. I looked up and met the pair of soft brown eyes peering down at me. The girl's inky black hair was cut short on her head, cutting off right below her ears. The hot pink netted shirt she wore over her black crop-top was an eye-sore, but showed off her flat stomach and pierced belly button. Her leather flared skirt had matching hot-pink pleats. Her smirk curled up the right side of her tiny mouth and her bottom lip was too full for a mouth that small, like she was a cartoon or something.

"I'm just playing around," I smiled. Not too big, so as not to seem inviting, but not too cold so as not to be rude. It wasn't in my nature to be rude, a fact I resented as the girl sat down beside me.

"You're a musician?" She asked and again I bit back the huff of impatience. She must have caught it though because she held her hands in surrender.

"I guess the guitar is a dead give-away," she chuckled, the sound bursting with unease. "I'm bothering you."

"Not terribly," I lied.

"This is what I get for playing truth or dare in the middle of a public park," she muttered. "The complete and total disdain of the hot guy trying to work in peace."

"Really, you're not that much of a bother," I reassured her, unable to stop myself. Her eyes held a dejected look to them that had my southern-born heart twanging. "Besides, I'm the one playing guitar in said public park. I should have expected people would come up to me." I hadn't though. Too much time away from civilization had me slow on recall. At the palace, I went to the courtyards all the time to destress. I had conveniently forgotten that a public park wasn't anything like a heavily guarded Palace courtyard. It had taken three giggling teenagers to remind me.

"It's a weird place to be making music," she agreed, a softer version of her wry smirk settling on her face. This girl had to be about sixteen, seventeen at the oldest. Way too young to think she had a real shot with me, which was nice, because the ones who were closer to my age were much harder to get rid of.

"I need inspiration," I shrugged, looking around the open space.

"So you came to a park?"

"Nature has its own music to it, you know?"

"Um...no, can't say that I do." She was smirking again, but curiosity was alight in her eyes. "What genre does nature favor? Punk-rock? Indie?" That one made me laugh. She smiled, triumphant.

"Depends on the day," I conceded.

"Mary!" A girl called from a few feet away. She fit the profile of almost half of every other girl who had approached me this morning: (fake) blond, skinny, too much eye-liner. She was dressed much tamer than the little sprite next to me, standard tank top and mini-skirt kind of girl. The entire little crew was watching me without trying to be obvious about it. "Let's go!" the girl insisted, smiling at me and glaring at her friend in the span of a second.

"Well it seems I must have completed the terms of my dare," the sprite whispered. She made a face and I smiled, genuinely amused.

"It was nice meeting you," I offered, prepared to return to my guitar.

"Do you play in town?" She said. I shook my head.

"I just got here a few days ago," I admitted.

"There's this pub my cousin's boyfriend's older brother owns that needs talent. It's right downtown and I could help you get the gig, if you wanted," she offered. I considered this. I was supposed to be laying low, but this town was pretty small, so playing at some pub wouldn't be a big deal in theory. And the whole point of this little adventure was to spend more time with the rest of the world. It wouldn't do for me to just be warding off over-zealous teenagers all year. I needed to invest in this.

"You don't even know if I'm good," I pointed out.

"No offense, but I don't think it matters much," She snorted. "Every girl in this park has been eye-fucking you since you sat down. Tall, lightly muscled, blonde hair that is a little too long for sex-hair but still really hot, a hint of a beard, big blue eyes: You're a walking wet dream. Tyler just wants someone who can fill a room and I'm pretty sure you can do that." I didn't deny it, able to feel the stares pressing on my back and well aware of my good looks, if not particularly excited about either of those things.

"Okay," I said, nodding slowly. "Write the number down." She beamed at me as I offered the pen and notepad I had sitting next to me on the bench. She quickly wrote down the information and then popped up, handing me back my stuff.

"He'll probably make you audition, but I wouldn't stress about that too much," She assured me. I just nodded.

"So, see you soon?" She said, tilting her head. Her belly-button ring flashed in the sunlight.

"Maybe," I conceded. She smiled and then skipped toward her friends before pausing and turning to me again.

"I'm Mary Alice." She waited for a moment and I weighed how rude it would be not to give her my name.

"Japser," I finally said. She smiled, nodded, and was off again. Her friends attacked her as soon as she joined the group and she glanced back at me to see if I noticed. She rolled her eyes and I chuckled.

The song still sucked, which was disappointing but to be expected. As I trudged into my studio apartment, setting my guitar by the door, I tried to work out tiny parts of it, anxious to pin down what exactly was wrong. I was so absorbed with this I didn't notice Emmet sitting on my couch until I almost sat on him.

Or he could have done it on purpose. There was no knowing with Emmett.

"Fuck, Emmett!" I exclaimed. He hadn't even put in his contacts. His eyes were bloodred and it was so creepy I had to look away, which made him laugh of course.

"What are you even doing here?" I griped.

"I can't drop in to see my baby brother?" He teased. Emmett had always been huge, but he seemed to have grown even more with his transformation. His chest was impossibly broad and he towered over almost everyone at 6'9. I was close in height at 6'7 but I was lean at best and skinny at worse.

"Who'd you eat," I asked softly. Besides his eyes, his fingernails still had blood under them.

"I doubt you know them," he shrugged. "You've only been here a few days. And I'm pretty sure they were a tourist." It made my stomach sick, just thinking about it.

"I didn't kill them," He pointed out. "Against the law."

"Veining is against the law too, but we all know how much you care about that one," I pointed out.

"So self-righteous. Between you and dad, I have my work cut for me making sure this family stays fun. At least Edward isn't so judgey."

"How is Edward? Is he doing okay?"

"He's fine. Dad has to get him new tutors because he's too smart for his own good, but he's fine."

"He should go to college," I pointed out for the hundredth time. "It's not too late to apply.

"He doesn't want that."

"How does he know-

"He's not you," Emmett said softly. "Not everyone is so eager to get away." I went quiet for a moment.

"Why are you here Em?" I repeated.

"To check on you," he repeated.

"To let me know you can find me," I translated. His eyes danced with amusement.

"Did I really need to prove that?"

Emmett was the ultimate predator, even more so than the others of his kind. His sense of smell was sharper, he was faster, he was stronger, and he was more blood-thirsty. His first year had been a trying one for the human population. His second was proving less eventful, or at least more quiet. I didn't ask him about his past times and he didn't share. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he hadn't quelled his wildness nearly as much as he wanted the vampiric public to believe he did but it was progress I suppose.

He was trying, if only to stay in line for the crown. It wouldn't do for the Crown Prince of vampire kind to be breaking the laws his own father helped create. The Hunters would throw a fit.

"Are you staying?" I asked, still not looking at him.

"You might as well get used to the eyes," he teased. "I mean, what's your other option? Avoid reflective objects for the rest of eternity?"

"I don't have a guest bedroom."

"It's only a year away now. You must be anxious about it."

"You can take the couch of course, but I doubt it's up to the standards you're used to."

"Don't worry, I'm leaving."

Suddenly he was in front of me, too close for comfort. I still didn't meet his eyes.

"You can't run away forever baby brother," he warned, the menace barely contained in his voice, the fear much harder to detect. It was the latter that helped me look him in the eyes. He was glaring at me but I knew him well enough to see what was real and what was an act.

No matter how big my big brother got, he would never quite get over his abandonment issues.

"I'm not running," I promised him. "It's just for the year, and then I'm back in Italy, as promised." Emmett observed me, inhaled my scent, and nodded.

"Are you taking your doses?" he asked and I didn't answer. His eyes narrowed. He was in my kitchen in a flash and then back out in front of me. He held out a small vial full of reddish-yellow liquid that he had snagged from the refrigerator and my gut clenched at the site of it.

"Spare me the dramatics," Emmett growled. I sneered at him. It was true that I was the only one who ever complained about the foul-tasting stuff, but we all hated it. And he didn't have to drink it anymore, so it wasn't fair for him to judge me.

"Don't make me shove it down your throat," he grunted and I conceded because I knew he wasn't joking. I threw back the drink like a shot and tried not to scrunch my face like the whiny bitch I felt like being.

"Good boy," Emmett teased and I didn't stick my tongue out at him, though it would have been totally warranted.

I couldn't deny I felt better though. I was even able to hear the song better in my head, fix the little snags in the melody that was pissing me off. I felt lighter and tomorrow I would be practically glowing I knew from experience, which would fucking suck. The most annoying side-effect of my "medicine" as father called it: Unnerving good looks for a human. So unnerving, no one would leave me the fuck alone. I groaned a little, just thinking about it, and Emmett shook his head at me.

"You are the only one who would be mad about all the girls guaranteed to throw you some free pussy tomorrow," he chuckled and I hated he could read me so well. Fair was fair though, I suppose.

"Good to see you, Jasper," Emmett smirked and then he was gone.

I sighed in resignation and sat down with a thump on my couch. I had known my destiny since I was five years old. I had accepted it long ago. But looking into Emmett's eyes, full of someone else's blood, I knew this trip was the right choice for me. For a year, at least, I could live a normal, human life.

I wasn't undead yet.

_a/n Surprise! Jasper isn't a vampire...yet. But Emmett certainly is and this time he isn't left out of the Gifted Circle. Thanks for reading! _


End file.
